With over 700,000 physicians conducting business in the U.S. alone, the market is ever expanding. The adoption of Electronic Medical Records (EMR) is growing every day as physicians new and old begin to realize the potential cost savings capable by adopting electronic management tools. In conjunction with the cost savings, EMR systems also allow healthcare providers to maintain centralized patient care records which are accessible in real-time from disparate sites. The standardization of information flow between healthcare providers is causing Federal governments to mandate the adoption of EMR systems. Physicians are increasingly starting to understand the benefits of electronic systems, and are looking for additional ways to leverage their investment.
A challenge faced for health care systems is patients are very busy people and the traditional 9-5 office hours are no longer sufficient to effectively service a ‘round-the-clock’ population. The healthcare industry is on the verge of a technological revolution. The declining cost of technology and its increasing ability to further healthcare is creating a lucrative niche market for companies with the foresight to assist. Research has shown that 35% to 45% of patients in the U.S. fail to attend scheduled physician appointments. Even using modest figures, the ability to decrease this ‘no-show’ rate is a niche 99 billion dollar industry in the United States alone. Traditional methods to address the problem are labor intensive, consuming the valuable resources of a physician's busy practice.
It is further noted that these challenges while discussed in relation to the healthcare industry, are also commonly faced within other industries such as education, financial services, legal services, insurance, and business services where there is a need for databases containing event and task related information (i.e. appointments and meetings with clients) which need to be maintained, updated and/or confirmed.
Problems associated with current state of the art appointment reminder systems include handling of large amounts of data from an appointment database having a plurality of appointments, client, and service provider information. A further problem is inefficiencies and errors in manual updating of appointment reminder status. A further problem is integration difficulties with a variety of appointment reminder systems for effective updating of their appointment records. A further problem concerns monitoring and efficient processing of related appointments. A further problem concerns coordination (i.e. disconnect or misunderstanding) of appointment details between service providers, clients, and the appointment reminder systems.
One solution to address this challenge is performed by Televox™, however their appointment reminder solution does not provide real-time two-way integration into the appointment database.